Forrestal Range
The Forrestal Range is a mountain range 65 miles long in Queen Elizabeth Land in the British Antarctic Territory, and one of the ranges which are collectively known as the Pensacola Mountains.
These mountains stand to the east of Dufek Massif and the Neptune Range, between the Neptune Range (to the south) and the Argentina Range (to the north-east). They rise to 6,660 feet at Mount Lechner.
This mountain range was discovered and photographed on 13 January 1956 on a transcontinental patrol flight by a United States Navy Neptune aircraft from McMurdo Sound in New Zealand's Ross Dependency, to the Weddell Sea and return, as part of Operation Deep Freeze I. It is named after USS Forrestal, the first United States Navy supercarrier, the name referring to eastern half of Pensacola Mountains. The range was further photographed from the air by the United States Navy in 1964. The range was surveyed from the ground on the United States Geological Survey Pensacola Mountains Project, 1965-66.
Mountains
Mountains in the Forrestal Rage include:
- Abele Spur (83°13’19"S, 51°2’31"W), a rock spur that descends west from Mount Lechner toward the Herring Nunataks
- Blount Nunatak (83°15’58"S, 51°18’58"W), a prominent nunatak reaching 5,348 feet, 3 nautical miles south-west of Mount Lechner on the west side of Forrestal Range
- Cooke Crags (83°9’15"S, 50°39’3"W); rock crags in the north of the range, on the ice slope between Henderson Bluff and Mount Lechner on the west side of Lexington Table
- Mount Lechner ((83°13’59"S, 50°54’58"W), the highest of the range; a prominent mountain of 6,660 feet surmounting the southwest end of Saratoga Table
- Watts Summit (83°12’20"S, 50°29’29"W); a peak rising to 5,856 feet in the south-western corner of Lexington Table
- Mount Zirzow (83°7’59"S, 49°6’0"W), a mountain of 5,300 feet, four miles north of Mount Mann on the east edge of Lexington Table
Other features
Plateaux
- Lexington Table (83°7’8"S, 49°52’21"W), a high, flat, snow-covered plateau fifteen miles long and ten miles wide, just north of Kent Gap and Saratoga Table
- Saratoga Table (-83.3452,-50.5959,15z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0?hl=en 83°20’43"S, 50°35’45"W), a high, flat, snow-covered plateau eight miles long and six miles wide, just south of Kent Gap and Lexington Table
Others
Location
- Location map: 83°0’0"S, 49°0’0"W
References
- Gazetteer and Map of The British Antarctic Territory: Forrestal Range
